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Continuous flow synthesis and characterization of tailor-made bare gold nanoparticles for use in SERS

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Abstract

We describe a method for the synthesis of gold nanoparticles in a stainless steel continuous flow tubular reactor using tetrachloroauric acid as a precursor but without using a classical reducing agent. Gold(III) ion is reduced by stainless steel to form gold nanoparticles which are collected at the end of the coil. A single-phase system is introduced that generates dispersed nanoparticles in the absence of reducing agents on their surface. By controlling flow rates and temperature, the size of the nanoparticles can be tuned in the range from 24 nm to 36 nm. The reproducibility of the preparation was investigated, relative standard deviation of both the wavelength of the peak and the intensity of the plasmonic absorption band were determined and found to vary by 0.15 % and 6.5 %, respectively. Flow synthesis is found to be an excellent alternative to chemical methods to produce stable gold nanoparticles of varying size in an efficiently way. The particles obtained also perform very well when used as a substrate in surface enhanced Raman scattering as shown by the characterization of carboxylated single walled carbon nanotubes.

Bare gold nanoparticles have been synthesized in a single-phase stainless steel continuous flow tubular reactor using tetrachloroauric acid as a precursor

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Spain’s Ministry of Innovation and Science for funding Project CTQ2011-23790 and Junta de Andalucía for Project FQM4801. A.I. López-Lorente also wishes to thank the Ministry for the award of a Research Training Fellowship (Grant AP2008-02939).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Analytical Chemistry, University of Córdoba, 14071, Córdoba, Spain

    Ángela I. López-Lorente & Miguel Valcárcel

  2. Institute of Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany

    Boris Mizaikoff

Authors
  1. Ángela I. López-Lorente
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  2. Miguel Valcárcel
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  3. Boris Mizaikoff
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Correspondence to Miguel Valcárcel.

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López-Lorente, Á.I., Valcárcel, M. & Mizaikoff, B. Continuous flow synthesis and characterization of tailor-made bare gold nanoparticles for use in SERS. Microchim Acta 181, 1101–1108 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-014-1215-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-014-1215-8

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